Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Room Place Part II Indiana AG Office is asleep.


The Room Place Part II Indiana AG Office is asleep.

On May 3 I wrote about the deceptive sales practice at the Room Place.  I also wrote to the AG of our state and they promised to mediate the problem. I didn’t ask for them to mediate but rather to stop the Room Place from what they are doing and make them abide by Indiana code. To protect other consumers.

Well today I got an answer since the Room Place did not charge me, because I yelled, they said there was no problem. So I asked I didn’t write you because I had a problem I wrote because I wanted an investigation and you to take action to prevent this from happening to anyone else. Most people have no clue that the Room Place is charging hidden fees after the purchase.

I love the answer I got. It appears they only have one complaint against the Room Place, mine and do not do anything if there is only one complaint. They need lots of complaints. So a hidden fee and practice will continue because no one knows that they are doing something they shouldn’t be doing. So if you break the law in this state and are the only one breaking it you get away with it even if the state knows but the public does not. Kind of sad.

Mr. AG – wake up your job is to protect the people of this state from anyone who breaks business law not just the ones who are most oblivious.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Congratulations to City of Indianapolis and State of Indiana


Congratulations to City of Indianapolis and State of Indiana

I knew you could do it, all your lack of hard work has once again proved that you don’t care about the people of this state. Indy you got it right with the title of the least fit metro city in the USA.

Ok let’s look at some of Indiana’s titles:
Industrial facilities dumped 206 million pounds of toxic chemicals into US waterways in 2012 - more than 17 million pounds of that was in Indiana alone, more than any other state in the U.S.

Indiana Ranks Fourth Worst In Nation For Air Pollution and 20th for the most soot. Yet they fight for coal-fired plants. Fight to keep the EPA out, who cares how many people will get sick later in life.

Keep up the good work Indiana spend all that money on PR to make Indiana look good after the Governor proved that Indiana was not inviting to many people. Make sure you don’t effect your rich fat cat friends from making tons of money at the expense of everyone sales.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Six down only one left.



Six down only one  left.

When I moved to the un-incorporated area of Geist the first letter in my mailbox was from the Town of Fishers telling me were going to annex my area. Being from another state I stated to look how is this possible? Don’t people have to vote to be taken over like it is in almost everywhere else? What was I going to get as a result of this take-over?

As it turned out I would get a 22% tax increase with no additional services. It was a pure land and tax grab by the Town. Then I found under Indiana law they didn’t have to ask us if we wanted to be taken over, just roll up the tanks and attack.

So many of us that lived in the effected area banned together and off to court we went, we knew we couldn’t win in the long run but every year we held them at bay was one less year of much higher taxes. So off to battle we went. For three years we held them off.

What was interesting is seeing how nasty they were. Almost to the point that if this were real warfare they would take no prisoners in battle.  Near the end we were trying to settle the whole thing and Art Levine and Eileen Pritchard were downright vindictive of us fighting for our rights. Then of course there was Scott Faultless and Stu Easley. The other Council members didn’t have much to say but we noted their quiet approval (Dan E. Henke, David George and Charlie White).

So we lost that battle, but the war was still going, the structure of Town Government allowed them to stay in office and rule with absolute power. So we started to get petitions signed by the citizens calling for a vote to stay a town or become a city.  I alone gathered over 50% of the required signatures for a vote and once again they showed their contempt for the voters. They refused to set a date for a vote. Off to court we went again and again the laws of Indiana are not in favor of the people but those in power. You see the law said they had to have a vote once the petitions were submitted but no time limit. So it was open ended. They could have the election in the year 2099. Public pressure finally drove them to an election. But once again they were up to their nasty tricks. They tried to rig the ballots by asking two questions instead of one and you had to vote yes on one and no to another. A small group of us came up with the campaign slogan “Don’t be Tricked” on black and yellow signs and it took off.  The town spent handfuls of money in an “educational” program to show what the difference was between a town and city. Needless to say a rather one side educational campaign.  They took polls and it showed them they were going to win by a landslide of 80%. We had volunteers and 98% of the households in Fishers got a Xerox flyer walked door to door. We had people at every polling place with a very small piece of paper on how to vote so you would not be tricked. Of course they had expensive fancy large postcards that you can’t take into the polls but a small piece of paper can go into a pocket and pulled out if you were not sure on how to vote.

Now I was not invited to the town victory party at a local bar but was told you could hear a pin drop when they announced the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of  a city followed by yells to get even with the city people. Ah victory is so sweet. But that is not the end of this story. You see I also made a promise to myself I would continued to work until the members of the Town Council were no longer elected officials of the Town or the New City.  Well Art Levine moved away, so one down. Charlie White ran for higher office and actually he didn’t count, as he was sort of OK. Dan Henke was moved to be the new town Judge while this was politics at its worst by the Town Council he was gone. Next came the first election for a City Council and two more were gone, Ms. Nasty Pritchard and Scott Faultless who had tried to rule with an iron fist for years. That left only two David George and Stu Easley.  Now Stu is an interesting fellow, first he was against the city even spending around $5000 of his own money to try and stop the city and once formed a reformed Stu was now a great City supporter. All these great things he was going to do, why he had 20 years on the Town Council to do them and didn’t. So he was beaten in the last election. And now we are down to the last one David George. I wonder if buried in the City  (Town) Hall somewhere there is a bottle of Champaign for the last survivor to drink a toast to his fallen comrades.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Stu the Poo goes down the Drain



Slowly but surly the old Fishers ruling group is vanishing. The old Town Council that did not believe in the power of the voters is almost all gone. The last of the big four went down the drain today as Brad DeReamer overwhelmingly brought down Stuart F. Easley aka Stu the Poo

Stu was one of the leaders that believed the Town should remain and worked to stop the vote by the citizens on a town vs. a city. So he joins Scott Faultless in the graveyard of politics.

Another factor is that Brad DeReamer will bring a fresh face to Fishers politics and someone who is not in the pocket of the developers. The Mayor and other Council members may be in for a big shock. I am certain in talking with Brad that he is going to stop the secret deals and speak out to let the citizens of Fishers know what is going on. I am still amazed how all of a sudden all these buildings are popping up and of course with taxpayer’s footing part of the development via tax credits and even out and out money. Tax breaks that hurt our schools and I am certain he will speaking out and letting us all know when they are trying to play their games.

If you want to help Brad in his quest to stop the Council nonsense you will have another chance. Greg Purvis who was one of the founders of City Yes will be running for the Council at large. He is more fiscally conservative than most of the Council members and will also raise questions and let the public know what is going on.

More on Greg will be coming later as we closer to the election.

To all who voted for Brad today, on behalf of the citizens of Fishers a big thank you.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Room Place - Deceptive Sales Practice

Beware of the The Room Place -

My wife wanted a new set of chairs for our dinning room. So off we went to one furniture store after another. I also look on line. So after who know how many stores she saw what she wanted at "The Room Place."

So we told the sales lady we wanted to buy 10 of these chairs. Now 10 chairs in a furniture store is not a small order. She started to write up an invoice and then told me there would be a delivery charge. I stated I would pick up the chairs, I was then informed there is a pick up charge.

Nowhere is it posted that the price of the chairs was not the final price and that hidden charges were applied after the selection and sale. After the sale they present a note for you to read about these charges.

I refused to pay any pick up charge and a store manager did remove this charge in view of the large dollar amount. But how many people do not protest and are hit by this deceptive and hidden charge.

When I went to pick up the chairs – I was presented with chairs that were not assembled. If I had wanted to buy chairs that were not assembled I would have gone to IKEA. Again no one told me the chairs were not assembled. I refused delivery as I had purchased assembled chairs. One again I told the store manager he had a choice refund my money or deliver what I ordered. Ten chairs that looked exactly like the ones in the showroom, fully assembled.  Upon coming home I e-mailed Customer Service about the service and the deceptive sales practice at their company headquarters in Chicago.

They responded with an offer to deliver fully assembled chairs. I accepted. But how many Hoosiers would be fooled by this company? How many of you would stop and say no or just accept this clear effort to get more money out of the customer?

I believe this company is clearly in violation of the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act and filed a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office. 

And to my surprise the AG responded:
"A Deputy Attorney General has reviewed your complaint and determined it may be resolved through mediation. I am responsible for attempting to mediate a reasonable resolution to your complaint." It will be interesting to see what is the outcome. 

If you paid this fee and picked up your furniture I would suggest you write the AG and you may get that money back. After all it appears to be in violation of Indiana law.

If you get hit by a hidden fee at any store of any kind, write the AG. We all need to stop this kind of practices by companies such as the The Room Place. In the mean time if you go to shop at this store remember do not accept pick up fees and make sure your furniture if you pick it up is assembled just like the one you purchased in the store.